European Network of Social Integration Enterprises at the conference on Social Enteprises & Digital Inclusion 

16.11.2018 - Vienna, Austria

ENSIE @ Vienna

During a conference in Vienna, European Network of Social Integration Enterprises (ENSIE) hosted a round table on the subject “Digital skills in Work Integration Social Enterprises: filling the gap”. Arbeit plus, ENSIE and the Austrian Presidency of the Council of the European Union organised the joint conference on “Social Enterprises and digital inclusion: participation in the social and digital world”. The event took place in the 16th of November 2018.  

The digitalization process is becoming more and more present in our daily lives. It has positive as negative impacts on vulnerable people presenting social and professional handicaps. To face this issue is crucial for the sustainability of jobs. Experiences shared during presentations demonstrate that we can use this process in a positive way by creating new types of work, fostering innovation and open new markets. This can be translated into new job opportunities for disadvantaged people and contribute to the poverty reduction. The main topic of the conference was to introduce challenges but also solutions to the challenges that the digitalisation process creates, therefore, the INNO-WISEs project’s main goal, which is creating a platform with various tools that could then help social entrepreneurs to better manage their activities, was presented. 

During this conference, ENSIE had the opportunity to explain the main purpose of the project, different steps and updates but also to promote the platform this project aims to establish. The project received positive and enthusiastic comments on the usefulness of the tool.  

67 people attended this conference. During the roundtable, 10 persons were present each time but there were two rounds, thus in total, during the round table ENSIE had about 20 people at its table. At the end of the roundtable activity, the results of exchanges were presented to the entire public. The participants of this conference were national public authority, interest group including NGOs, higher education and research entities, business support organisation, WISEs, SMEs, business support organisation and general public.